i second c3017474

the original speakers aren't worth the trouble. get an iMic and speakers of your choice, for a lot cheaper. Creative labs i-trigues are decent

You can also use the USB connector from the PlayStation SingStar game to get audio in. Plug and play.

I have also seen (on eBay) generic USB hubs with built in card-readers and USB audio. They also should just plug and play.

My connection is unbearably slow at present, but do a search for "Cube" under Computers/IT in eBay and you'll see the device that Edge is talking about - they're about $30 - 40.

I'm using the iMic with my Cube (connected to some older 4.1 Creative FPS2000 speakers). The quality isn't as good as that from my nVidia Soundstorm on my PC (using same speakers), but for $60 it's nice to be able to use any analogue speakers.

JB

ahhh sweet as, thanks guys. ill try out the imic.
i have a singstar adaptor, ill give that a go to (but im guessing thats only for line in?)

Hi all,

Was playing with the insides of my Cube again last night.

Having connected a 20" LCD panel (with ADC) I needed to upgrade the video from the stock ATI RagePro. Forunately at the time, I had a G4 Digital Audio with a GeForce 2MX which did a nice transplant - however only the small heat sink and no fan. So I knew I was on borrowed time.

Found a pre-flashed Nvidia 5200 (with large fan) guaranteed to work with Cube - I gather from one of the Strangedog types. It arrived last night and is now running very nicely with the DVI-ADC convertor that I picked up with the 20" panel. Still have to do some work on the back plane.

Now my Cube actually makes noise - nothing like the G4 Dig Audio (and like a mouse compared to the 1st Gen Xserve!).

Regards,

JMD

Gday jmd,

I used to have one of those ADC/Geforce 2 MXs in my Cube, and did the old freeze trick of popping off the heatsink to replace it with a HSF setup. It gets bloody hot in there

It died, even though the removal of the heatsink was clean.

Like you I'm debating whether or not to replace my ADC Radeon 7500 with a FX5200, as my ADC monitor has died. Do you find Core Image performance decent using this card?

JB

I'm also interested in seeing if the 5200 performs well.

I've figured it's too hard to get a 6200 and hack the .rom for it to work. So I'm just going to get some yumcha 5200 with a nice quality heatsink.

I don't have any ADC monitors, so that's not a worry for me.

pipsqeek

MSY sell Gigabyte/Leadtek/some other brand 128MB FX5200's for $44 - probably 64bit cards, I wonder how well they'd do with flashing?

JB

I've banned MSY. The past 12 months, I've gone in there (only because sometimes their prices are cheaper then my suppliers), and they never have common things.

I've asked for CPU's, HDD's and RAM. Things that every computer shop stock. They never have anything I want in stock.

BANNED! :P

On topic: Not sure how the 64Bit cards fair. I have a suspicion that they might not work. I will have to snoop around strangedogs and see what I come up.

pipsqeek

Yeah MSY sucks, you queue up for 20 minutes (usually behind some clueless f*ck who doesn't have a clue what they want) and then you find they don't have any 400gb drives. Or 300gb. Or 250gb -- in fact, all they have is 160gb, PATA, 2mb. They suck!

I've only experience with the MSY in Box Hill - a new store, and items are stacked on shelves and you can go and choose what you want (except RAM and HD). It's fairly quiet too.

The last time I went - and the week before, both to buy notebook RAM - the same guy I dealth with hardly looked at me the first time, second time I couldn't get away for all his crapping on!

JB

I've been to both, the well established Aubrun store and the new one in Ultimo, which is 3 mins walk from where I am currently working.

Both have never had anything I want. And it's not like I was some obscure peice of equipment.

But anyway. Back on topic, I will be looking at various FX5200 video cards. and see what I can find, what works, what brand to look out for, heat issues. etc.

I assume that the Cube will need a fan once a 5200 is fitted??

Something I'd rather do without.

I'm still interested in seeing if I can move the HDD out to that gap I mentioned a while back. Make more room for air and stuff.

I haven't had a look at the VRM yet. I wish the aftermarket ones were still being made.

I might have to see how to move this to a cooler location, as I have vaguely heard makes like better for the heat factor.

XLR8yourmac seems too convoluted for me to navigate around.

Cheers
pipsqeek

Well i loved my cube so much i kept the name but sold it on as i was having so much trouble with the new CPU i got from powerlogix. Anyway it was 1.35GHz 120Gb HDD 1.5GB ram GeForce 3 video card. Was a little beast when it ran fine. Anyway i stripped it back to standard and moved the stuff to this one and got the CPU swapped for the one that fits this machine.

I should clarify that above I was talking about the Ultimo one. Though I have been to Auburn once or twice (a while ago) and it was bad too.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I have just come into possession of a PC GeForce 2mx. Is enough of an upgrade from the stock ATI RagePro that it's worth trying to flash it? If I don't put a fan on it, is it hot enough to put the Cube at risk?

Yes, it's a decent upgrade - Expose and other QE functions are surprisingly smooth with such a card.

The easiest way to flash is on a PC + PCI video card.

Lastly, yes it gets red hot fanless in a Cube - you'll need a small profile HSF to help things along. Or, a base fan + a fat finned heatsink touching the steel enclosure would do.

JB